Look How Far We've Come
by smarter
Summary: Spencer likens falling in love to being hit by a freight train and quotes an obligatory psychotic jackass way too in depthly. She's also very wordy.


Some people meet the loves of their lives in high school. For some, it's expected. It's something they planned all their life. They expect to fall in love in high school and marry their high school sweetheart. It's what they dream of. Others fall in love with their best friend, the one they've known since the sandbox, or even since birth. But for people like Spencer Hastings, love was never part of the plan. Getting straight A's in all her AP classes, being Valedictorian, going to a good College - _that _was her dream. It _was_ her dream. It was her _parents _dream. She grew up in a well educated family. Her mother was a lawyer, and her father...well, it wasn't like she ever had a normal conversation with him. He was always working, and when he was around, he asked how she was doing in school not about her life. As for Melissa? Spencer grew up living in Melissa's shadow, trying desperately to be up to par with whatever Melissa set the bar at, otherwise her parents would be disappointed. Falling in love, let alone in high school, was never at the top of her list. Good grades and extra curricular activities were.

Everybody goes through bumps in the road, but Spencer's entire high school career was more than just a bump in the road. It was a pothole, a ditch, twists and turns, bumps that left bruises, broken limbs and broken hearts. Nobody could ever dream of living Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily's life in high school. In the beginning there was Alison DiLaurentis. Ali was...Ali was everything every girl ever wanted to be and more. Her popularity was something everybody craved. In the end, her popularity isn't what everybody remembered her for. Anytime anybody talked about Alison these days it was always, _"God she was so pretty, can you believe Ian killed her?"_ And then the conversation would turn into next 3 years of her life. It was something Spencer got used to overhearing over time. Rosewood was a small town, Alison's death and the mysterious "A" turned out to be all anybody thought about when they thought of Rosewood. God forbid she could walk down the street without tourists stopping her. _"You were one of the Pretty Little Liars, right?"_ It didn't matter that the four of them weren't actually liars, once the media gave you a nickname, it stuck. For the rest of your life.

It was a wonder that even through all that, Spencer came out the other side. They all did. "A" might've won numerous battles, but she didn't win the war. Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer fought kicking and screaming to make sure of that. They made enemies, God did they make enemies, but there were people who stuck through them thick and thin. When the clouds were dark and it seemed like the rain was never going to stop, they were there holding an umbrella. When Spencer felt like she couldn't breathe without breaking, there was always someone there to hold her hand and tell her it was okay. It was okay to breathe and if she broke, they would help put the pieces back together. "A" never stood a chance in the long run. Never. The one constant in Spencer's life was someone she never expected. Someone she passed on the playground, someone on the otherside of the sandbox, someone she properly met in high school. The one constant in Spencer's life, the one she ran to for comfort - that was Toby Cavanaugh.

You could say that Spencer and Toby's story was epic. If you wanted to quote Logan Echolls, it was "spanned years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed" epic. Quite literally, really. Lives were ruined, blood was shed - not by any fault of theirs, honestly - and their story? It was Epic with a capital E. Spencer accused Toby of so many things before she even said two words to him, but he understood. It took months and a few breakups and a lot of yelling, but he understood. And Spencer understood. His life wasn't easy, and neither was hers. So she understood. They had many talks about running away and leaving Rosewood and all its drama behind. Talks about life in general and if they were really cut out for...all of _this_. The stress was almost too much to bear at some points. They blamed each other for a lot of crap, got into one too many fights, but a relationship like theirs? The epic relationship of Spencer Hastings and Toby Cavanaugh? That doesn't get handed out to just anybody on a silver platter. That's something you have to _work_ for. You have to _earn _it, and hard work wasn't anything new to Spencer. Spencer _lived_ for hard work. Toby was worth all of it. He was worth all of the baggage, all of the stares, all of the questions from people who just _assumed_ he wasn't a person to trust. He was worth the constant badgering from her parents and Melissa to stay away from him and how he was no good for her because she could do better. For Spencer, Toby _was_ better. Being in love with Toby wasn't something that came easy and judgement free. But hey, nobody writes songs about the ones that come easy, right?

Falling in love is like being hit by a freight train. You know it's coming, you know you should do something before anything bad happens, but you don't feel it until it actually hits you. Love hurts. Maybe not as much as a freight train, but it hurts. It can leave you heartbroken and crying on the bathroom floor, but if you know the consequences beforehand, you prepare for them. You put up walls, your defense mechanism so you don't get hurt. But if you don't know it's coming, you have no time to prepare. Love is an infectious disease and it'll keep you head over heels until you put a stop to it. Spencer was guarded since day one. Her walls were up, falling in love was never going to happen with Toby Cavanaugh because all she wanted to do was teach him French and interrogate him about his step-sister and Alison. She never meant to fall in love, she never meant to get attachted, she never meant to not want to spend the rest of her life without him. Falling madly in love with someone while she was in high school was something Spencer never planned, never hoped for, never _dreamed_ of. But it happened, and here she was, several years later, standing in front of a mirror staring at herself. Part of her wondered how it got this far, the other part of her didn't care. Her high school sweetheart was wearing a tuxedo and waiting for her. _"Spencer?"_ It was time.

"Some people meet the loves of their lives in high school. Some meet them at the supermarket, or in the library while cramming for a big final. I met the love of my life when I wasn't even looking. I was wandering aimlessly in the darkness, stumbling over rocks and leaping over holes in the ground. I didn't know I was lost. I just kept walking, telling myself I wasn't lost, I was on the right track. Horrible things happened. Horrible, _horrible_, things. But still, I kept walking, carrying all this weight on my shoulders. I walked until my body just couldn't bear it anymore, and then I pushed myself some more. I pushed and pushed until one day I just stopped. I stopped pushing myself because I just wasn't strong enough anymore. I wasn't strong and I couldn't walk down the path anymore. Then you came along. You carried me until I could carry myself again. You brought light into my world of darkness. I didn't know I was lost until I met you. I didn't know I could feel this way and love this deeply until you came into my life. Some people meet the loves of their lives in high school, I met you on the playground. Across the sandbox. In the darkest time of my life. I met you when I needed you most and I will never regret the things I did to keep you here. Life without you isn't a possibility anymore. You're mine forever. Thick and thin, sickness and health. We've done it already, who's to say we can't do it for the rest of our lives? I love you, Toby Cavanaugh, and I _will _love you until we're old and gray and beyond."

And just like that, from the sandbox to awkward high school meetings, Alison DiLaurentis, "A", lives ruined, bloodshed, epic - Spencer Hastings became Mrs. Toby Cavanaugh.


End file.
